A flexible tactile sensor using seedless hydrothermal growth of zno nanorods on fabrics

Abstract

Aflexible and cost-effective electromechanical device for tactile sensing based on ZnO nanorods (ZnO NRs) grown on fabrics is developed. Sensing performance and the electromechanical properties of ethylcellulose/polyurethane-coated ZnO NRs on fabric substrates were tested by the LCR meter, force transducer, vibrator, and pulse analyzer. The peak-to-peak output voltage at an applied force of 21.5N dropped considerably for the wool-, nylon-, and PP substrates and reached to the order of 3.84 mV, 1.8mVand 4.1 mV, respectively. Furthermore, the frequency dependency of the dissipation factors revealed abrupt changes at low frequencies, while these changes were negligible at high frequencies.